Health concerns spark call for sperm donor revelations

The records of sperm donors could be made available after the advice of a Victorian Parliamentary Committee today, but the idea has caused much debate already.

Transcript

plusminus

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: As many as 60,000 children conceived through sperm donation have grown up in Australia with no idea who their biological fathers are and no hope of finding them. But that may be about to change. In a world first, a Victorian parliamentary committee has today called for the records of all sperm donors to be made available to donor-conceived adults. It's a deeply controversial move. Some donors are horrified and some in medical profession say it would trash the fundamentals of doctor/patient relationship. Sarah Dingle reports.

NARELLE GRECH: I've always been very curious to know who my biological father is. ... I would pass people or look at strangers and wonder whether we were related.

SARAH DINGLE, REPORTER: 29 years ago, Narelle Grech was conceived using sperm from an anonymous donor. She's been searching for him since the age of 15, but legally she has no right to know who the donor is and her time is running out.

NARELLE GRECH: Last May I was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, because at stage four, there is no stage five. My oncologist just said to me on Monday actually that he's kind of expecting me to live "a few years at best", were his words.

SARAH DINGLE: Like all sperm donors at the time, the man who helped conceive Narelle was promised his identity and medical history would be denied to any offspring. But her illness has given her an urgent need to find him.

NARELLE GRECH: The doctors asked almost instantly, "Is there a history of bowel cancer in your family?" There are tests if it's in the family that young people can have from about 15, so had I known that there was a potential risk of bowel cancer I could have caught this before stage one even.

SARAH DINGLE: She's not concerned just for herself. Narelle Grech has learned that she has eight half siblings, all fathered by the same donor who may be carrying the same fatal gene.

NARELLE GRECH: All of them are 25 and older and they need to be screened and I've got no way of warning them.

SARAH DINGLE: Narelle's plight has given added urgency to the task of a Victorian government committee which has examined whether children conceived with donor sperm can have access to identifying information about their donors.

CLEM NEWTON-BROWN, LAW REFORM COMMITTEE: Narelle Grech's illness was something which really touched the committee. She is in a position where she needs to - if she's gonna find out who her biological father is, she needs to get that information reasonably quickly.

SARAH DINGLE: In the early '80s, the creation of technology to freeze and store sperm kicked off a donor insemination boom across Australia. It was an industry built on shame and secrecy. Families were told to pretend it never happened and donors were promised they'd never be found.

CLEM NEWTON-BROWN: After hearing all the evidence, it became apparent that what is really most important here is the rights of the children.

SARAH DINGLE: Now Victorian politicians are calling for what would be a world-first: donor offspring would be given identifying information about their donors.

Some donors told the inquiry anonymously they were deeply opposed to the prospect of change. One said it would be extremely distressing for his wife and their children and he feared and dreaded contact.

CLEM NEWTON-BROWN: While that's perhaps embarrassing, uncomfortable, when you weigh that against the - what these donor conceived children are going through, it pales into insignificance.

SARAH DINGLE: Medical professionals are dismayed at the thought of moving the goalposts.

HARRY HEMLEY, AMA VICTORIA: We always regard the patient-doctor relationship as being absolutely sacrosanct. That information must remain confidential unless there is expressed consent from the donor.

GAB KOVACS, MONASH IVF: To me a promise is a promise and we should not change it retrospectively.

SARAH DINGLE: Professor Gab Kovacs is a pioneer of donor insemination. Since 1978 he's treated more than 3,000 couples, including the parents of Narelle Grech.

GAB KOVACS: She's a very nice young person and we feel terribly sad about her illness, but I just can't see what else we can do.

NARELLE GRECH: So when I was 18 I made an appointment to see Professor Kovacs. I wanted to know whether there'd be any more information he could tell me, and he said, "Unfortunately if I were to tell you your donor's name, I'd go to jail."

SARAH DINGLE: So he knows.

NARELLE GRECH: He does know.

SARAH DINGLE: Professor Kovacs says he can't remember who the donor is and he no longer has access to her records.

There are stories of successful reunions.

Roger Clarke and Riley Knight are good mates and Roger is also Riley's biological father.

ROGER CLARKE: We share ideas and opinions and thoughts and we enjoy each other's company, and that's probably the best way to sum it all up.

SARAH DINGLE: Roger Clarke donated on a number of occasions in the 1980s after his wife suggested they help other couples. Riley is one of five offspring conceived using Roger's sperm.

RILEY KNIGHT: I met Roger when I was 19. I went in without real expectations of anything that was gonna come out of it.

SARAH DINGLE: For them, the law wasn't a barrier. Each wanted to find the other and so joined a voluntary register.

ROGER CLARKE: There's that moment when he walks through the door, and it was a terrific moment for me because you straight away look for resemblance. I thought Riley looked like I looked when I was about 18 years old myself.

RILEY KNIGHT: He's got a full head of hair. I'm very happy about that. It's excellent. I'm looking forward to that.

SARAH DINGLE: If passed, the changes will allow Roger's other donor offspring to contact him, although Roger won't have the right to contact them himself.

ROGER CLARKE: I welcome any inquiry that might come from the other four, and Riley, as I said, he's busting to meet them anyway.

SARAH DINGLE: Adelaide medical researcher Damian Adams tried to find his donor when he was a teen. But when he became a father, his search intensified.

DAMIAN ADAMS, MEDICAL RESEARCHER: There is nothing that we can do about it. All the information's held in the hands of other people.

SARAH DINGLE: Now Damian Adams is a national advocate for donor-conceived people. But without legislative change in his state of South Australia, he'll probably never find his donor.

NARELLE GRECH: We haven't had a voice really before this time and it's really nice that we're being listened to. I hope that I am around long enough to potentially meet my biological father and some of my paternal family and siblings.

SARAH DINGLE: For Narelle Grech, the committee's recommendations are bittersweet. The changes won't save her life, but her eight half siblings would be warned of any urgent medical risk, which for them could mean the difference between life and death.

NARELLE GRECH: I'd hate to kind of bring about a lot of difficulty for them, but I do believe that knowing the truth is really important for me. Even though it's been a difficult journey, the truth really does set you free.